The Bloc is leaderless no longer

Dec 12, 2011, 12:21 AM EST

Former MP Daniel Paillé has been elected to lead the Bloc Québécois. He currently doesn’t have a seat and won’t be
asking any of the four remaining MPs to resign so that a by-election can be
held to get him into the House, believing he can do more work to rebuild the
party from outside of the House for now.

The chief of Attawapiskat denies agreeing
to third-party management – even after the minister put out a press release and
said so on television. Oops. Said minister then proceeded to flail about
aimlessly on CTV’s Question Period when
confronted with the chief’s denial, and oh, was that the sound of Harper deciding
to shuffle Duncan off to National Revenue when the next reshuffle happens (but
not right away, because that would mean that he made a mistake when appointing
him)? That said, these rumours of Duncan’s health could mean a resignation – “for
health reasons” – may come sooner than later.

Uh oh – NDP leadership candidate Brian Topp
was booed off the stage at a debate in Vancouver last weekend when he went
overtime on his statement and ignored the moderator twice. For his part,
Mulcair had a number of people calling out during the biography that was read
out. But it looks like everyone still agreed with one another, so crisis
averted.

Still on the NDP leadership file, Peggy
Nash has outlined her queer issue priorities, thanks in part to the support of
Randall Garrison, the party’s queer issues critic.

Nycole Turmel continues to insist that BC
should not have to pay back its HST compensation, even though the province is obligated by its agreement with the federal government to return it.

And Scott Feschuk gives his hilarious take
on the use of the human backdrop at the first NDP leadership debate.